Source: Orange County Register (CA) Contact: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 Author: Barry Meier LIGGETT MAY AID US IN TOBACCO PROBE Cooperation could make the company's scientists and other experts available to investigators. Representatives of Liggett Group,the maker of L&M and other brands, are exploring an agreement with Justice Department officials under which the cigarette producer would cooperate in the government's criminal investigation of the tobacco industry, said people familiar with talks. The cooperation of Liggett, which is owned by Brooke Group Ltd., could boost the Justice Department's four-year inquiry by making company scientists and other experts available to investigators, even though Liggett is the smallest of the nation's major cigarette producers and considered producers and considered to be far less technically sophisticated than giants like Philip Morris Cos. Last March, Liggett broke with its industry colleagues and separately settled 22 tobacco-related lawsuits filed against it by state attorneys general. And Brooke Group Chairman Bennett LeBow became the first tobacco industry executive to acknowledge publicly that nicotine is addictive and that smoking causes cancer. Paul Caminiti, a spokesman for Liggett, which also produces Chesterfield, Eve and Lark cigarettes, would not comment. A Justice Department spokesman said the agency, as a matter of policy, would not confirm or deny anything potentially related to an investigation. But people with knowledge of the talks, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said representatives of Liggett, including LeBow and Stanley Arkin, a New York criminal lawyer retained by the company, have met several times with Justice Department officials to discuss the terms and conditions under which Liggett might cooperate with the government's inquiry. The Justice Department is looking into such issues as whether cigarette producers manipulated nicotine, the addictive substance in tobacco, or whether they defrauded the government by lying to regulators and elected officials. All manufacturers have denied any wrongdoing. The goal of Liggett representatives in trying to craft a deal would be to provide the company with immunity from prosecution or to reach a plea agreement that would minimize any criminal penalties that the company or its officials might face. Most of Liggett's cooperation with the government would probably have to come in terms of participation by its scientists, executives and lawyers, including some who participated in meetings with officials and lawyers of other cigarette producers. It is not clear whether the talks between the Justice Department and Liggett will result in an agreement. But Liggett's apparent efforts to set itself apart from other tobacco producers are in keeping with the company's actions over the past year. After Liggett settled the state suits last March, other producers quickly attacked LeBow and his company, branding him a traitor who was cutting a deal to help prevent a financially weak company from falling into bankruptcy. Since then, LeBow has remained a thorn in the industry's side by testifying on behalf of plaintiffs in smoking on behalf of plaintiffs in smoking-related lawsuits and publicly releasing information on cigarette ingredients and additives.